March 25, 1920] 



NATURE 



I II 



inorganic world, suggested the probability that 

 the varying interpretations of the Highland 

 problem might admit of a like solution. While 

 Lapworth was able to carry and apply his tectonic 

 principles to the Highlands, definite organic suc- 

 cession now failed him, and he was driven to 

 depend mainly on his stratigraphical methods 

 applied to variations ■ which were mainly litho- 

 logical. Again, most elaborate mapping, and 

 something akin to inspiration in the interpretation 

 of it, came to his aid, and in a few months he 

 had proved that the secret of the Highlands was 

 that the region was the basal wreck of an ancient 

 mountain chain exhibiting tectonic features akin 

 to those worked out by Escher and Heim in the 

 Alps. Lapworth was passing forward to the fuller 

 >>tudy of the metamorphic area of the Highlands 

 when his work was cut short by illness, and, in 

 spite of his wish to do so, he was never able to 

 take it up again. 



The tectonic work, however, led on to the sug- 

 gestive study of the rock-fold, which formed the 

 subject of his address to the British Association 

 at Edinburgh (1892), in which he passed from the 

 structure of mountain chains to that of continents 

 and oceans, and onward to the antilogous crests 

 and troughs of the earth's crust as a whole, includ- 

 ing that great " septum " the Pacific girdle of fire, 

 the "wedding-ring of geology and geography." 

 Later, Lapworth laid before the Geologists' Asso- 

 ciation his conception that a great continental 

 wave sweeping round the earth would produce 

 results analogous to those revealed by the succes- 

 sion of stratified rocks. In this, as 'in his other 

 work, while possessing deep and sympathetic know- 

 ledge of the researches of such geologists as 

 Suess, Heim, and Bertrand, he held steadily to 

 the views of the mechanics of the earth's crust to 

 which his independent thought had led him. 



The success of his own graptolite work and the 

 keenness with which it was being followed up by 

 young observers led him to propose a new classi- 

 fication of the Rhabdophora, and to contemplate a 

 monograph on the Order. This has now been com- 

 pleted by Miss Elles and Mrs. Shakespear under 

 his guidance and editorship. 



Although his duties at Birmingham, and the 

 great amount of professional work involved by 

 his position there, kept Lapworth fully occupied, 

 his ideal diversion was always the discovery of 

 new facts and their delineation on maps. 

 Field classes, week-ends, and longer holidays were 

 always devoted to this, resulting in the completion 

 of large-scale maps of Nuneaton, the Lickevs, 

 Dudley and the Coal-field, the Wrekin, the Long- 

 mynd and Caradoc, the Shelve country, and, last 

 but by no means least, with his friend Dr. Stacey 

 Wilson, the Harlech area. Little of all this work 

 has been published. He loved to add to it, 

 to improve and polish it, to fill in diflficult corners 

 in detail, and to show his treasures to his friends, 

 delighting that they should realise some of the 

 steps which led to his conclusions, and appreciate 

 some of the labour of discovery. 



As a great teacher Lapworth earnestly desired to 

 NO. 2630, VOL. 105] 



equip his students to take their share in furthering 

 the advance of science and to remqve anything 

 that could retard its progress. It was only fitting 

 that the man who had stilled the Lowland con- 

 troversy, and wrested its secret from the High- 

 lands, should give the law in the " Silurian " con- 

 troversy and make the opponents sink their differ- 

 ences by the adoption of his term "Ordovician." 



Sir Thomas P. Anderson Stuart. 



It is with deep regret that we have to record 

 the death, on February 29, in Sydney, of Sir 

 Anderson Stuart, the well-known and highly 

 respected professor of physiology in the University 

 of that city, and the dean of its medical faculty. 

 He had been in failing health for some months 

 previously, but the fatal outcome of his malady 

 was unexpected by his numerous friends. 



Anderson Stuart was born at Dumfries in 1856, 

 and was the son of Alexander Stuart, Dean of 

 Guild. He received his early education at the 

 Dumfries Academy, and later studied in Germany 

 (Wolfenbiittel and Strassburg) and in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, where he graduated 

 M.B., Ch.M. with honours in 1880. The next 

 year he was appointed assistant of the professor 

 of the Institutes of Medicine at Edinburgh, and 

 later took the M.D. at that University, obtaining 

 the gold medal. 



It was in 1883 th'at Anderson Stuart went to 

 Australia as professor of physiology at Sydney, 

 which post he held until his untimely death. His 

 was a forceful character, and he threw himself 

 with enthusiasm into the work of teaching and 

 research there. He will be remembered for many 

 useful pieces of original work in connection with 

 the circulation, the physiology of swallowing, and 

 the eye. His various models and schemata, in 

 which he manifested extreme ingenuity, are 

 standard helps to teaching in all modern labora- 

 tories. His work as dean at a later stage in his 

 career brought the medical school into high repute, 

 and at the meeting of the British Association in 

 Australia in 1914 he pointed out with justifiable 

 pride the new buildings of the medical school, 

 fully equipped with all modern appliances and 

 accommodation for research and teaching, which 

 formed the successful culmination of his efforts. 



But Anderson Stuart was more than a professor, 

 more even than a dean ; he was a sagacious man 

 of the world, and was appointed on many occa- 

 sions delegate by his University to various inter- 

 national congresses, and consulted by the Govern- 

 ment of New South Wales on many questions of 

 public importance mainly related to educational 

 problems. He was thus a well-known figure, not 

 only in Great Britain, but also in other European 

 countries. 



In his adopted country Anderson Stuart's life 

 was a long story of official appointments success- 

 fully discharged. He was twice president of the 

 Royal Society of New South Wales. He was 

 medical adviser to the Government of that colony, 



